Downing Street has issued a temporary GB-wide ban on the sale of disposable barbecue and brought in the military to help deal with wildfires as Andy Burnham urged people not to risk lives in “tinderbox” Britain this weekend.
The prime minister spoke from Stourbridge in the West Midlands, where at least 19 people have been taken to hospital during eight fires that have ripped through several homes.
He said it was necessary to bring in a temporary ban on disposable barbecues from today, asking retailers to withdraw them from sale, as he spoke of the “absolutely devastating” wildfires.
“Please think about the situation we are in,” he said. “Britain is a tinderbox right now. Setting a fire in any outdoor setting is a risk to people’s homes and other people’s lives.”
He said not all of the 37 fires across Britain had been caused by barbecues but it was “probable” that some of them had been.
Advice published online by the government said that single-use grills had “been the cause of a number of serious wildfires across the country over the summer months.
“Disposable barbecues cannot be considered a safe product in the context of the ongoing weather and environmental conditions and must not be made available for sale either in store or online at the current time.”
The prime minister also revealed he planned to commission firefighting planes, as used to douse flames in Europe and the US, to combat the spread of wildfires, as he said the country had to “face up” to the “changing climate”.
Burnham said plans were being drawn up for emergency financial support for fire services battling the spread of wildfires. He warned that the weekend ahead would be difficult in terms of fires, and that hotter and drier than normal conditions could last through September and into October. He said late autumn could then bring the prospect of floods as the ground would be drier than usual.
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The prime minister has faced criticism for not having addressed the issue of the climate emergency after his first Cobra meeting on the heatwave this week. At the same time, his government is mulling whether to allow more North Sea drilling at two fields, Jackdaw and Rosebank, which green groups warn is the wrong thing to do at a time of climate crisis.
Pressed on his views, he said the priority was to build resilience and make adjustments in the face of threatened fires and flooding, as well as more broadly making the shift to clean energy.
And asked about North Sea drilling, he said he would take a “pragmatic” approach, and argued: “We won’t be able to stop using oil and gas for some time, that’s just a fact.”
